The Walker Brothers - Love Her

Smash S-1976, 1965
 
Their second single follows the Phil Spector Wall Of Sound Playbook almost to the letter: song by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, orchestration by Jack Nitzsche... the only thing missing is the gun-toting lunatic himself. Instead, the producer is Nick Venet (Beach Boys, Frank Zappa). Pretty slick.

What really stands out here is Scott Walker's lead vocal. The guy was amazing from the very start, making real fire with an otherwise pedestrian pop tune (I doubt Mann & Weil were in the habit of giving away A-list material to unknowns).

James Brown and The Famous Flames - Let Yourself Go

King 6100, 1967
 
One of my favorite JB tracks, from a period full of favorite tracks.

Most people probably know this one from the Star Time box set, which features cleaned up digital remixes of his hits. The CD version is fine, but I still prefer the gritty, reverb-drenched sound of the original single.

Michael & The Messengers - Up Til News

USA 866, 1967 (B-side of "Midnight Hour")
 
That recent Sundazed compilation inspired me to dig out some of my USA singles. So far, this is the only one to turn up (I swear I had more, somewhere). I'll skip the A-side. Just go ahead and buy the comp* for that one, it's worth it.

This is what they call a throwaway B-side. It sounds like the band had a few minutes of studio time left, and nothing to put on the flip - so they just made something up on the spot.



* info on that magnificent Sundazed comp:
www.sundazed.com/lp5245.html

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

Capitol 2056, 1967
 
This has to do with my first real complaint with the new Beatles remasters.

For some mysterious reason, every released version of this song has two measures chopped out (about 1:30 in, just before "Yellow Matter Custard...") - except for the original US Capitol single. The edit is easy to spot, as it is rather crude and slightly off the beat.

Probably not a big deal to anyone else, it's just that I must have listened to this single hundreds of times before the Magical Mystery Tour album came out (at first, I thought the LP had a skip in that part).

The US 45 version (without the edit):


the edit (from the 2009 mono remaster):



An annoying little mistake(?) gets repeated once again.